The invention relates to a button combination comprising a base part to be attached to an article of clothing and a main part to be detachably connected to said base part. Button combinations of this kind, which are for example used for interchangeably placing decorative buttons on the base part, are known from International patent application WO 96/05749 and European patent application no. 0 664 971.
With the button combination according to WO 96/05749, a conventional button is used as the base part, which button is provided with a few holes for passing yarn therethrough, by means of which yarn the button is fixed to an article of clothing in a usual manner. The main part to be placed on the base part, which forms a decorative button or the like, is provided with bar-shaped parts, which, in order to fix the main part to the base part, must be passed through the openings provided in the base part for passing the fixing yarn therethrough. The bar-shaped portions are thereby provided with barbs at their free ends, which barbs engage behind the base part when the main part is placed on the base part. When the main part is to be detached from the base part, the barbs engaging behind said base part must be moved towards each other. This is difficult, and generally it will only be possible if the base part is attached relatively loosely to the article of clothing by means of the fixing yarn, so that sufficient space is present between the side of a base part that faces an article of clothing and the article of clothing itself. When the base part is loosely attached in this manner, articles of clothing fitted with such a button combination will look slovenly, however.
With the construction according to European patent application no. 0 664 971, the base part is made up of a U-shaped element, which carries projecting arms at the free ends of its legs, which arms must be received in a circular groove formed in the main part, whereby the base part and the main part must be moved to a position in which they are fixed relative to each other by turning the two parts with respect to each other. The construction of the base part and the main part of this known construction is relatively complicated, whilst furthermore it is not possible to realise a firm attachment of the base part to the article of clothing so that the base part will take up a desired position relative to the article of clothing. Also with this construction, undesirable rotation of the base part relative to the article of clothing will rather occur, which will make articles of clothing fitted with such button combinations look slovenly.
According to the invention, the main part is provided with two disc-shaped portions extending parallel to each other, which disc-shaped portions are interconnected near their circumference over part thereof, wherein a recess is provided in one of said disc-shaped portions, which recess is open at an edge of the disc-shaped portion in question, whilst the base part comprises two parallel disc-shaped portions, which are interconnected by a connecting piece, all this in such a manner that in order to interconnect the base part and the main part, the connecting piece of the base part is inserted into the recess in the main part with a clamped fit, wherein one of the disc-shaped portions of the base part is positioned between the disc-shaped portions of the main part.
When using the construction according to the invention, the base part can be firmly attached to the article of clothing, in such a manner that one of the disc-shaped portions of the base part butts against a respective panel of the article of clothing and is fixed thereto. The other disc-shaped portion can be passed through a respective buttonhole when buttoning up the article of clothing in question. The disc-shaped portion that is passed through said buttonhole may be suitably shaped to conform to a large degree with conventional buttons used in shirts and the like, for example, so that the base part can also be used without using the main part, if desired. If it is desired to give the article of clothing an additional touch of distinction, a desired main part can be placed on the base part by simply sliding the main part onto the base part, whereby a firm anchoring between the main part and the base part can be realised.